NASCAR Driver Kevin Harvick's Car Damaged by Parachuter

Anything can happen in a NASCAR race, and as Kevin Harvick found out when a parachute jumper dented his car, anything can also happen before a NASCAR race.

As part of the festivities leading up to the event at Texas Motor Speedway, a parachuter landed in the pit while displaying the Texas state flag below his feet. As ESPN’s Terry Blount notes, the flag was weighed down by a heavy object, which slammed into the door on the driver's side of Harvick’s car when the jumper landed.

Despite the sketchy landing, the parachuter was not hurt, and Blount points out that the person even posed for pictures in front of the damaged door. The report adds that the dent took about 15 minutes to fix before the car was ready to race again.

Harvick took to Twitter and provided a picture of the damage, noting that this was not an ideal start to his day.

The 36-year-old NASCAR veteran is currently 11th in the Sprint Cup standings and is still searching for his first victory of the season in a Sprint Cup race. He has placed in the top five four times this season and has 11 top-10 finishes.

Harvick was able to race as planned despite the odd turn of events, and the engines started roaring in Texas at 3 p.m. ET. He can only hope that the parachuting incident is the last stroke of poor luck that he will face today.

A victory would be a massive boost to Harvick’s 2012 campaign, and he certainly has the talent to pull this off if he is not impeded by any more foreign objects.